NEWS

Chelsea Chee, our Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator, was honored on April 17, 2018 by the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) with their 2018 Rising Star Award. She traveled to Washington, D.C. to receive this honor. This prestigious award honors a person at the beginning of their career who has demonstrated exemplary leadership traits promoting access, equity, and diversity in education and/or the workforce. NAPE's Rising Star eligibility requirements state, "The ideal candidate has distinguished themselves from peers by promoting access, equity, and diversity in the workplace or community and has demonstrated through actions that they embrace the NAPE belief that access to diverse human brain power will help to solve global challenges." As a woman who grew up seeing the huge potential of those in her small, remote community of Teesto, AZ, despite their lack of access to opportunities, Chelsea certainly meets and exceeds these standards.

Through her work with Tribal communities, community colleges, researchers, and educators, Chelsea's passion and leadership skills have led to innovative programs that promote diversity, inclusion, and representation in STEM fields. Her programs have directly impacted nearly 400 NM EPSCoR participants from across the state, and indirectly impacted thousands more. She also founded the Natives in STEM project, an initiative to inspire students of all backgrounds to pursue STEM careers by raising the visibility of Native STEM professionals. She is not only an asset to the state of New Mexico, she is an exceptional human being and great friend to all of us here at NM EPSCoR. Learn more about Chelsea's work on diversity and inclusion for NM EPSCoR on our diversity page, and take a look at the Natives in STEM website to learn more about how to get involved. Read the full press release here. Congratulations, Chelsea!